The Lake
I want you to imagine Hemenster... a quiet fishing town in northern Kandarin. But instead... in ruins. What you see in your mind's eye is what I'm seeing right now. Intense winds howling around me, hail the size of gnomeballs crushing roofs, the Lake Hemenster slowly gaining a foothold on the coast. Not the kind of thing you'd like to see. I dodged the hail and ran towards the shop as fast as I could. Just as I did, the entire ground below it suddenly liquefied, and the shop fell into the Lake. As I watched it drift into the Lunar Sea, I realized the ground beneath my feet was liquefying. Immediately, at least 5 houses fell into the Lake. A huge bolt of lightning struck at what remained of one's foundation, as if to say: "Take that!" A piece of hail came down and hit me on the head. Bonk!-'' I was knocked out. As numbness entered my limbs, I could feel the entire town beginning to heave. I felt a huge landslide engulf the town. Everything fell into the lake. Water filed my lungs. I could feel that I was about to die! As the last bit of available space in my lungs was filled with water, my vital organs began to fail. One by one, liver, kidneys, spleen, pancreas... and finally heart. ---- I woke up in my makeshift bed at the stroke of midnight, with a cold sweat. My heart was beating a mile a minute. I ran into the parlour and looked out the window. ''Sigh Everything was alright... or was it? I realized I was just dreaming. Relieved, I headed back to my room and lay in my bed. It wasn't long before I, Dancus Frumac, fell alseep. ---- The next morning I was the first to awake. I passed by Raiah and the Master's rooms as I walked down the hallway, half asleep. It was very foggy this morning in Hemenster. I couldn't stop thinking about my dream last night. I put on some water for tea, as Raiah and the Master would soon be up. I hate tea. Perhaps out of habit, I walked to the front door and picked up the morning paper. I scanned the headlines, and landed on a very interesting one. "King Harmon Gives Speech on Freak Weather." It was begging to be read. By Carlie Goodford-'' The air was tense yesterday as His Majesty King Harmon Reeves gave a speech on what he called "Freak Weather". Apparently, these rogue storms could strike anywhere and anytime; similar to the one that destroyed upper Karamja the day before. One thing that especially surprised the audience was that His Majesty said that we had 'to stop relying on gods and fortune to save us, and to stand up on our feet and solve our own problems'. Many Saradominists took this as an insult, especially members of the Re-establishment sect. Many of the said sect left Kandarin for Asgarnia yesterday, where the sect is more widely accepted. But the burning question we're all asking is this: Who's next? Freak weather? I didn't know two words could be paired like that to sound so... scary. Raiah was walking into the parlour, and I could hear the Master yawning. "Oh, ''yawwwwwn, hey Dancus. What're you reading?" Raiah asked, sitting down at the same couch I was on. "Oh, this thing about rogue storms," I replied," Here. Read it." Raiah was finished with the article in no time. She was obviously a speed reader. "Rogue storms? My goodness. I certainly hope one doesn't strike Hemenster." I decided to not tell Raiah about my vision. Not yet. "Yeah, me too," I said flatly. The Master walked into the room, said nothing, and continued to the kitchen. We followed him, hungry as starving bears. The Master began to fry some eggs for us. "You know," he said, " I heard King Harmon gave a speech on something." "So did we," Raiah said. The master came to the table and laid out our omelets. We started to eat. "Hey, guys," I asked, "What kind of Zamorakians are you?" I was hoping that didn't seem intrusive. "Orthodox," The master said. He didn't seem stirred at all by the question. "Quite hard not to be one if you're in the necromancy business!" He stuffed a large chunk of fried egg into his mouth. "And you are?" "New Age Saradominist. As are most Varrockians," I replied. "Ah. So tell me, children. What was Reeves' speech about?" "Freak weather, apparently storms that can strike anytime and anywhere." "That doesn't seem too dangerous. Not very speechworthy." "Well there was a storm that practically eradicated north Karamja 2 days ago!" Raiah exclaimed. "Then, being near a lake, I do suspect that our situation is about to get very grave indeed." ---- The sky was overcast and dark. It was 2:00 pm, but it could be mistaken for late evening. Everyone, Dancus, My Master and I could all sense the torrential downpour that was about to happen. My Master was running around, closing windows and shutting the shutters. I was taking signs out of the front lawn, while Dancus was bringing down the "Open" sign. Then, I felt it; a raindrop right on my forehead. Within seconds, thousands of raindrops were falling from the sky. "Quickly!" the Master yelled. We ran inside the shop. A bolt of lightning struck where I was standing only seconds before. Then, the hail started coming down. It was only one minute into the storm, and it was already hailing. By now, the hail was the size of a human head! We watched as roofs across town were crushed by the enormous orbs of ice. "Guys, I have to tell you something..." Dancus said to us suddenly. "I had a vision last night. A vision of this storm!" Another bolt of lightning struck a house across the street. "You what? Why didn't you tell us?" I half-screamed. "I didn't want to cause panic... but this is important. This shop is about to fall into the lake! We have to get out!" "What do you mean?" "I mean the ground is about to liquefy!" The look on my Master's face turned very grave. "Then we must get out!" he screamed. We all ran out the front door and, dodging hailstones and lightning bolts, ran towards the Seer's Village. "WAIT!" Dancus screamed. "We have to save Hemenster!" "Hemenster's doomed, child!" The Master yelled. "What the hell are you saying? Hemenster is your home!" "Son, there's no way to save it now." "Well, at least I'' care!" and with that, Dancus sped off to Hemenster. "Wait!" I screamed. "I'm coming with!" I ran down the road. "Rai! Are you insane?" The Master came running behind us. Dancus suddenly held out his hand. All the rain above us ceased to move. Oh, sweet, sweet telekinesis! "Dancus... What are you doing?" I yelled. "What I was born to do!" He combined all of the raindrops into one huge ball. Dancus tossed the ball as far as he could into the lake. It wasn't enough. Lightning struck a tree behind us. ''ZZZZZCCRACKK! The entire tree came plummeting down. "Watch out!" I yelled. Dancus whipped out his hand, and contorted it in ways unimaginable. The tree stood back up on its stump; as it nothing ever happened. I suddenly realised the lake was growing bigger. By now, it had engulfed half of Hemenster! I used a spell I learned in the Atra Nox. "Pyro Surgis!" A huge ball of blue flame exploded from my fingertips, and evaporated everything in its path. Luckily, It didn't burn down anything. But, nothing was working. There was no use! ---- Good lord almighty, this storm was resilient! I kept chucking the raindrops and hail; Raiah kept throwing flame-balls; and the Master was pouring potions everywhere and chanting illegible words. Dodging lightning strikes, he ran back into the shop and returned seconds later with at least 7 phials of the blackest potion possible. "What are those?" I yelled through the thunder. The Master quickly ran under a hailstone the size of a coconut. "They're freezer potions!" The Master yelled. "I forgot we still had these! The last time we had good business, these sold like wildfire!" A huge lightning bolt struck a tree, which exploded into yellow flame, and the fire quickly spread to the grass. Oh, Sweet Lady Irony! The Master suddenly chucked one of the inky black phials at the fire. The potion exploded as it hit a branch and froze everything on fire! It was amazing! "That was awesome!!" I yelled. A gigantic hailstone was about to strike my head! At the last second, I threw it into the lake with telekinesis. "And that was a close call!" The Master threw at least half of his remaining potions into the lake. It immediately froze; but Raiah was still using her fire spell! In the spur of the moment, Rai used her spell and the fireball melted the entire lake. "RAIAH!" The Master and I blurted out. "What??" she asked, looking innocent as a songbird. Lightning struck a hailstone as it raced to the ground. "I had the lake frozen!!! The storm wouldn't have continued if you hadn't have done that!" the Master yelled. He was so soggingly wet that he had trouble walking. "I'm sorry! I didn't know!" she replied, shocked. "Well, next time look before you belt out your damn fireballs!" By know, Raiah was very emotionally distressed. She ran, sobbing, into the shop. ---- "Raiah!" Dancus came running after me as I ran to the shop, dodging hailstones and lightning bolts. "Rai... what's wrong?" he asked. We were under the shop's window awning. "Well, maybe it's the fact that the man who brought me under his wing and nurtured me for 8 straight years just treated me like the rest of this world treats us Zamorakians! Maybe it's because I made one slip up and my closest thing to a real father had just insulted me at the top of his lungs!!" I screamed, my salty tears staining my dark pink robes. "Raiah! What are you saying? Your master loves you dearly, I'm sure. We were both frustrated at you... a fact which I hate to say; but only because we could have stopped this hurricane then and there!" Dancus explained. "It was just an accident, and it's all water under the bridge now! And unless we stop this storm, the entire town will be under water." I began to dam her river of tears. "I guess you're right..." I said. "We need to work together, stay as a team no matter what!" My frown turned more serious. "That's the spirit! Now, let's go stop this storm before we drown," Dancus said, already up to his ankles in debris water. Dancus and I bolted out from under the awning and raced back towards where the Master was standing. Then, a huge bolt of lightning struck the house next to the shop. The house, now cracked in two by the intense heat, exploded into white flame. "Kyhaaaaaa!" The Master hurled one of his potions at the house. The very second that inky fluid touched the building, everything froze within a couple meters. "C'mon kids," The Master yelled through thunderclaps, "We've got work to do!" ---- As the hailstones fell and lightning struck, we were in dire straights. Raiah was almost out of runes, the Master had only one potion left, and the lake had almost consumed the village whole. We would need help from above if we were to end this plague of rain! Wait, that's it! I, Dancus, thought. Help from above! I sat, cross legged, on the ground and set my hands to their opposite shoulders. "What're you doing?" Raiah and the Master yelled, now both shooting flameballs. "You'll see." I silently began to pray as the storm raged around me. Oh divine lord Saradomin, I call upon thou to answer my prayers. I ask of thou to end this tempest! I was encased in blue light, and my mind entered another dimension. Saradomin's head suddenly phased in in front of me. "Lord, why have you caused this storm? It is a punishment for our sins; or the sins of others?" I asked. "Young mortal," Saradomin replied, "This hurricane was not caused by myself." "Was it Zamorak, then, Lord?" "No. Nor it was any other god of common knowledge. Not Bandos, nor Armadyl, nor Marambo even! No, this was a consequence for the backwards sins of a jilted, rogue god who isn't associated with humans in any way. He is the god entitled Sh..." Saradomin's head slowly began to fade from view. "Wait! Who is it??" Before he could answer, Saradomin was gone from view. The blue shell of light receded. I phased back into reality. "So?" the Master suddenly yelled. "What the hell just happened?" "Nothing that would help us." I used my powers on the lake's water. It slowly began to rise. I was furious; I... I wasn't myself. The entire lake had been lifted free of gravity, floating in the air. I could feel my life force drain from me, increasingly every second. I threw the huge orb of water out to the sea. Then, I swiped my hand across the sky, doing movements normally impossible. My last bit of life force was draining out... The entire storm thunderhead was under my control. I also threw it out to sea. Then, I fell to the ground. Comatose. ---- Ugh... I woke up in my makeshift bed in the shop. I suddenly realized what happened. I had nearly died from performing such costly telekinesis. I was so weak I could barely walk; or breathe for that matter. I limped my way into the parlor and stared out the window... everything was absolutely... perfect?! "Hey! Master, Dancus is up!" Raiah yelled. "Goodness, when am I?" I asked. "When? That's unusual. One day after your 'accident'." "Ah. Hey, why is the town not ruined?" "Hey, It's a small town, you know!" We both began to laugh. Lake